If you’re in Trinidad and Tobago, you’re as screwed as we are when it comes to an explicitly recognized right to privacy in your constitution: there is none, so your government can surveill you, right?

THERE is no enshrined right to privacy under the law, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi told the Senate and by extension the country yesterday as he argued that legislation to widen the powers of State surveillance did not require a special Parliamentary majority. “There is no enshrined right that is being infringed,” Al-Rawi said, piloting debate on a Bill to amend the governing statute of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA). “There is no right to privacy, as some people allege exists in this jurisdiction, but which our courts do not recognise.” The Attorney General noted the Constitution, in Section 4, recognises the right to, “respect for…private and family life.” But he said the courts are, “replete with judgments that say the right to privacy is not, per se, a right.” Al-Rawi said the common law recognises a right when there is breach of confidence.